


A Roof Over His Head

by soongtypeprincess



Series: RanSid Gay Dads AU [6]
Category: Outcast (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Parents, Child Abuse, Family, Family Drama, Family Feels, Gay Parents, M/M, Orphans, Past Abuse, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-17 20:51:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13085130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soongtypeprincess/pseuds/soongtypeprincess
Summary: John takes Kyle to his custody hearing to find out if he stays with the Andersons or returns to his mother.





	A Roof Over His Head

**Author's Note:**

> Megan is six, Kyle is nine.
> 
> I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS!

Kyle shifted in his tight dress shoes as his father helped straighten his tie. “Hold still, now,” Sidney said.

“Dad, why do I have to dress like this?” Kyle asked with a groan. “I don’t even dress like this for church.”

Sidney grinned as he straightened the tie and fixed his foster son’s white collared shirt. “Because you want to look nice for court,” he told him. “You’re gonna be in front of a judge and a couple of lawyers.” He brushed aside Kyle’s bangs with his fingers. “Besides, you’re gonna see your mama today. Don’t you wanna look nice for her?”

“She won’t care,” Kyle muttered. He looked at Sidney and frowned. “She never took the time to help me get dressed like this so she probably won’t even notice.” 

“Hey, now, don’t talk like that,” Sidney replied. “I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you.”

Kyle glanced down at his shoes. “Do you think she’s…better? You know…”

Sidney licked his lips and continued to straighten the boy’s hair. “Anything I told you would be a lie, son,” he said, quietly, “because that’s not up to me.”

“I mean,” Kyle said, “I want her to be better, but it’s just that…” He paused and crossed his arms. “If I end up going back with her…can I still visit ya’ll?”

Sidney grinned. “Of course you can. Any time.”

Kyle grinned back and stroked the satin fabric of his striped tie. “Thanks for helping me with this. And for the clothes.”

“No problem, hon,” Sidney told him. “Hell, you’re easier to dress than your papa.”

“Sid!” John’s voice suddenly echoed from their bedroom. “I can’t find my cuff links!”

Kyle giggled as his father playfully rolled his eyes. “Tuck in your shirt,” he told him as he walked out of the room. “You don’t have cuff links, John,” he yelled down the hallway.

“Yes, I do!” his husband insisted. “They’re little silver ones. They’re in a white Macy’s box. They were in my dresser, but it appears that somebody moved them while he was doing laundry.”

“My Lord, John Anderson…” Sidney mumbled as he went into their bedroom.

Kyle tucked in his pressed white shirt and cinched the belt that was just a bit too big for his small waist. He heard a soft knock on the door frame and turned to see Megan.

“Hey,” he murmured.

“Hey,” she said. “You like nice.”

Kyle shrugged. “I guess…”

Megan moved to his bed and sat on the edge. “I wish I could go with ya’ll.”

“You don’t need to go,” Kyle told her.

“Maybe I do.”

“It’s a custody hearing, Megan,” he said. “It has nothing to do with you.”

“What’s a custody hearing?” she asked.

Kyle let out a sigh as he pulled on his new black blazer. “I have to go and see if my mom wants me or not.”

“She was mean to you, though,” Megan reminded him.

“No, she wasn’t!” he blurted and then composed himself as he turned away. “I mean…she was sick, Megan. She just needed some help. She didn’t mean it.”

“Don’t you like it here?” Megan asked.

Kyle felt his eyes begin to sting with the start of tears, but he sniffed them back, saying, “I like it here…but’s it’s not my choice.”

“But that’s not fair. What if you didn’t want to go back with your mama? What if you told the judge that you wanted to stay?”

“It’s not my choice!” he growled as he left the bedroom.

Megan looked down at his constellation bedspread and traced Orion with her finger as his footsteps stomped downstairs into the living room.

After John was dressed in his black slacks and blue buttoned shirt (sans cuff links), Sidney walked them to the Prius. 

He opened the car door for Kyle who climbed into the backseat. “See ya later, honey,” Sidney told him. “Good luck.”

Kyle looked at his lap and nodded as Sidney shut the door. He walked to the driver side door where John was waiting for him, his travel mug of coffee in his hand.

“Ya’ll got snacks in there?” Sidney asked him.

“Yeah,” John said. “Granola bars, peanut butter sandwiches, apple slices, water thermos. Mercy, Sid. It’s only a two-hour drive to the courthouse.”

“You never—“

“You never know, I know. You always say that.” 

Sidney watched as John put a hand on his hip as he took a big gulp of coffee. “You nervous?” he asked him.

John sniffed and lightly shrugged. “I just want the best for him, you know?” he said in a low voice. “He’s been under our roof for the past eight months. We’ve given him a pretty decent livin’, and now what if…” He looked at Sidney. “I just couldn’t live with myself if his mom ended up hurtin’ him again.”

“Babe,” Sidney whispered. “We don’t know what’s gonna happen today. Hell, you haven’t even gotten in the car yet.”

They exchanged a grin and John gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Love you,” he said.

“Love you, too,” Sidney replied. “Drive safe.”

John climbed into the driver seat. “Click it or ticket, Kyle.”

After watching the car leave their driveway, Sidney walked into the house. “Megan?” he called out. “Where are you, Bug?”

“Up here,” came a meek reply from Kyle’s bedroom. Sidney went upstairs to find Megan lying on Kyle’s bed with tears falling down her nose.

“Hey, angel,” Sidney said as he sat on the edge of the bed. He stroked her long hair away from her temple as she sniffed quietly. “Are you sad about Kyle?”

Megan nodded and wiped her nose.

“He’s coming back today, baby,” Sidney assured her.

“I know,” she whimpered, “but he told me that he can’t tell the judge that he wants to stay with us.”

“Well, Megan…that’s a bit complicated. He can’t –“

“I don’t want him to go back to his mama!” she whined. “I want him to stay! Why can’t he stay?”

“Come here, honey,” Sidney said as he guided her onto his lap. She hid her face in his neck as she continued to cry. “I want him to stay, too. You love him, huh?” Megan nodded. “I do, too, baby.”

“Then why can’t he stay?” she whimpered.

“We’re his foster home. That means he can only stay with us until he goes back to his mama or he finds a family.”

Megan wiped her cheeks. “But we are a family, Daddy,” she said.

Sidney bit his lip, not knowing how to respond to her, so he kissed her forehead.

The hours dragged along on that hot day in Rome. Sidney kept himself busy by catching up on the loads of laundry that were stacked high in baskets down in the basement. Megan tried playing with her stuffed animals and, when she was bored of that, she flipped through her children’s edition of the Bible.

Sidney made them a simple lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and chips and, afterwards, sent Megan outside with a couple of Oreo cookies. 

He watched her climb onto the tire swing that John had helped tie up for the kids. She swayed slowly and hugged the rope as she ate her dessert.

It was close to supper time when the green Prius pulled back into the driveway. Megan looked up from the cricket she was following in the grass and smiled as she hopped to her feet. She ran to greet the car, but Kyle ran into the house without looking her way. “Kyle, wait!”

John grunted as he got out of the car and slammed the door. “Leave him alone, Megan,” he said sternly. His face appeared to be flushed from the heat. “He needs to be in his room.”

“What happened, Papa?” Megan asked.

“Just leave him be, alright?” John commanded as he walked to the house.

She stopped on the top step when the screen door banged behind him. Megan licked her lips as she stepped closer and quietly opened the door. She caught it behind her so that it wouldn’t slam again and she stood in the foyer, listening to her fathers’ conversation in the kitchen. 

“She was late,” she heard John’s angry tone. “Even her fuckin’ attorney didn’t turn up until three-o-clock! And then he had the God damn gall to try to move the hearing to a later date! Which, thank God, the State denied!” He stopped pacing and sighed as he sat at the breakfast table. “This was only supposed to take about an hour, but we pretty much spent the whole damn day there. Jesus, it was hot in that courthouse, too.”

“John, calm down,” Sidney said.

“Don’t tell me to calm down, Sid!” he shouted. “This has been a hell of a day for that boy!” He paused and removed his glasses, setting them on the table in front of him. He looked down at the checkered tablecloth and his face suddenly became solemn. “She signed him over, Sid,” he said in a low tone.

Sidney’s heart dropped. “What?” he asked as he stepped closer to his husband.

“She doesn’t want him,” he replied. “He’s now a ward of the state of West Virginia.” He cleared his throat.

Sidney put his hand over his mouth and closed his eyes. “Jesus…” he whispered.

“Yeah,” John nodded, his anger rising again. “She made him wait, too. All for that. Made him wait in a hot fuckin’ court room with no windows and a shitty A/C!” He shook his head and took another deep breath. “You want to know what’s really fucked up, Sid?”

Sidney didn’t reply but just placed his hand on John’s shoulder.

The gentle squeeze on his shoulder made John’s eyes burn with tears. “She wouldn’t even fuckin’ look at him,” he said in a strained voice. “She didn’t look at him, Sid.” The tears fell from his eyes and splashed onto the tablecloth. “Why did she put him through all this? I mean…it wasn’t enough that she beat the shit out of him and locked him in a closet…” He rested his elbows on the table and placed his face in his hands. “God dammit, she wouldn’t even look at her own child!”

Sidney gently eased John from his chair and embraced him. John clutched Sidney’s shoulders and sobbed against him.

Megan listened as her papa cried. She knew that John’s father was mean to him when he was a kid, and she knew that was one of the reasons he and Sidney wanted to start fostering children who came from households like the one he lived in. 

Megan was an abandoned child, too, until her fathers began fostering her when she was two months old. They fell in love with her and, by the time she reached her first birthday, John and Sidney had begun the adoption process.

She had secretly prayed every night for the last few months for God to let Kyle be adopted by them, too. Maybe this was a chance for that prayer to be answered!

However, she didn’t want her prayer to be answered like this, with Kyle heartbroken and neglected and her papa angry. Was that part of God’s plan for him, though?

She walked into the kitchen and caught Sidney’s eye. “Hey, sweetheart,” he greeted with a smile.

John pulled away from him as Megan approached them, his face bright red as we wiped tears away with the heel of his hand. Megan wrapped her arms around his leg and squeezed. He giggled and stroked her red hair. “There’s my girl,” he whispered.

“Did you hear everything just now?” Sidney asked.

Megan nodded.

John cleared his throat again. “You, uh…you know not to say all those cuss words, right?”

“Mm-hm,” she said. “Is Kyle gonna live with us now?”

“For a little while longer, yeah,” Sidney replied.

“How long?”

“We’re not sure, baby,” John told her.

“I want to go up and talk to him,” she asked.

“Not right now, Bug. Give him a few minutes, okay?”

There was a moment of quiet between the three of them until Megan said, “Papa?”

“Yeah?”

“Is this God’s plan?”

John raised his eyebrows. “His plan? Well…maybe. God has a plan for everyone.”

“Well,” Megan said, “I was just thinkin’ that…you know, I was an orphan, too, and then God put me with ya’ll and then ya’ll adopted me. Maybe Kyle’s plan is like that, too.”

John licked his lips and looked at his husband, bewildered. Sidney let out a soft laugh. “Possibly,” he said. 

“Yeah,” John agreed. “Possibly. You know what you can do, though, precious?”

“What, Papa?” 

“You can pray for him. Every night. So that he has strength and he knows we love him.”

She smiled. “And that’ll work?”

“I’m not sayin’ it’ll work. I’m sayin’ it’s the best we can do for him right now. A roof over his head and a prayer every night.” 

“Then, I’ll keep on prayin’,” she assured him.


End file.
